Make it work :cry :cry :cry

[dfgsd]

ordered a 9700np refurbished card from newegg. I got it. It actually seems to be at pro speeds. I think someone might have just flashed the bios though. The problem is it seems to crash in anything 3d. And by crash I mean anywere from 1 sec to 15 sec and a complete lock.

I have tired unoverclocking my system, lowering card clockspeeds to the lowest possible. 8x and 4 x agp fastwrites on and off. fresh installs of xp, and 3 different ati drivers. I have installed nforce 2.03 drivers and xpsp1 and dx9.

my system is epox 8dra+ 512 ram 2100xp scsi hard drives and enermax 430 watt psu. I dont know what else to do.

please help me

[jankerson]

Download the newest drivers from ATI and see if it still does the same thing.



You could flash the card again....I would flash it to be sure.

[jankerson]

And a hint for the future:

Stay away from refurb products....you never really know what the last person did to it.

[dfgsd]

yea i actually have tried the newest drivers, but aparently quake 3 works. so I am thinking that my problems are just with direct3d. I have had pretty good luck with refurbs in the past...at least I should be able to return it if i cant get it to work

You think that flashin the card would make a difference? I have tried clocking it lower or could the bios have something else that could affect stability? I dont have a floppy drive in this machine so going through the flash process would be quite a pain

[dfgsd]

yea so quake 3 crashes too. it just makes it a bit longer.

[glussier]

Have you tried the new cat 3.5 drivers? they just were released today. You can get them at http://www.atitech.com

[Bink]

Cheers glussier

[jankerson]

Originally posted by dfgsd
You think that flashin the card would make a difference? I have tried clocking it lower or could the bios have something else that could affect stability? I dont have a floppy drive in this machine so going through the flash process would be quite a pain

I am thinking it might have taken a bad flash.....(Maybe the reason Newegg got it back)

I would RMA it myself....

[dfgsd]

I used the drivers released yesterday. maybe I should look at some bios updates for my mb too. Yea I will probaly take one or 2 more days of messing with it before i send it back.

[wrathchild_67]

Confirm that the card is not a 9500 non-Pro unsuccessfully flashed to a 9700. The part number on the white sticker on top of the card should reveal all. I know that this may seem stupid because you'd think Newegg would check for something like this, but you never know...

[dfgsd]

yea the sticker says 9700. when i checked the clockspeeds they were at pro, so i flashed to a non-pro bios. still nothing. I called an rma for it. its a shame too. it had the samsung memory and it cost me around 150. Anyone else got any ideas that might work?

[jankerson]

Originally posted by dfgsd
yea the sticker says 9700. when i checked the clockspeeds they were at pro, so i flashed to a non-pro bios. still nothing. I called an rma for it. its a shame too. it had the samsung memory and it cost me around 150. Anyone else got any ideas that might work?

So I was right..

Ah man that sucks...

I would be chewing someones ear off over that one..

Just RMA the card..that's your best bet.

[sam_fisher]

Welcome to my world! i had the same problem with 3 brand new powercolor 9700ps.

here's the way to see if its a busted flash
install powerstrip and drop the clock to 300 and leave the ram alone.
then do your testing. if it works fine at 300mhz you know you've got a faulty flash.

sam.

[dfgsd]

I didnt try that. but i did drop both clocks well below 300(as low as powerstrip went i think) and it still crashed instantly on direct 3d stuff.

[jankerson]

These days people are flashing Video cards and CDR's. It seems that someone will put out a magic flash to overclock the card or CDR. But when it doesn't work it kills the product.

Then they return it.

You were unlucky to get the one you did.

Be very careful these days about getting refurb or open box items.

Chances are some IDIOT did something to it before it was returned.

(They have the attitude that if they kill it they can just return it)

Then someone else buys it not knowing what happened to it. Wasting their time and money.